• As your therapist, I offer honesty, openness, comfort, and a commitment to seeking God’s guidance and direction for our time together. In John 10:10b, Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” As your counselor, I will listen for those parts of your story where you are not experiencing “life to the full” and explore possibilities for how your story could be expressed differently and with preferred meaning moving forward. Ultimately, my priority is to give my best to your process, and to trust that our mutual commitment toward your healing and wholeness will help draw you closer to the fullness of life that God intends for you.

  • : Curator

    Kate Motaung is the Senior Writer, Editor, and Content Manager for a multi-state company. She is the author of several books including Letters to Grief, 101 Prayers for Comfort in Difficult Times, and A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging. Kate is also the host of Five Minute Friday, an online writing community that equips and encourages Christian writers, and the owner of Refine Services, a company that offers editing services. She and her South African husband have three young adult children and currently live in West Michigan. Find Kate’s books at katemotaung.com/books.

  • Anxiety can feel like a vice, gripping you at the most inconvenient times. One moment, you are fine, and the next, you can barely catch your breath. Anxiety can cause long-term detrimental effects physically, emotionally, and mentally. It can affect your relationships and your work life. Recognizing the signs of anxiety and getting help when needed can make the difference between being stuck in an invisible prison of fear and stepping out into the life God created for you.

  • The aging process refers to the physiological and mental changes we experience during our lifespan and is an inevitable part of living. It’s a gradual process that begins in early adulthood as cell structures and functions start to decline. Although you can’t stop the aging process from happening, you can make choices that improve your ability to maintain an active life and continue to do the things you enjoy. Common changes that come with the aging process. Vision. As

  • Some Christians mistakenly believe that to pursue self-improvement is to glorify the self instead of God. However, this is not true, as chasing after Jesus will cause you to adopt His characteristics, becoming more like Him as you seek after Him. The only way to nurture a relationship with Jesus Christ is to draw closer to Him through studying the Bible, praise, worship, and prayer. The benefits of growing closer to Christ take self-improvement to a whole new level.

  • How things begin makes a huge difference in what happens after. If your first meeting with someone is unpleasant, that may mean that your relationship is marked by that negative interaction and may never recover. However, an inauspicious beginning doesn’t automatically mean that the ending is already written. After all, things change, and predicted outcomes can be averted. This all relates to attachment and how a person engages in relationships with others. Just because you have a particular attachment

  • Every relationship experiences challenges in one season or another, including the ones we consider healthy. When we encounter this with our teens, we need not be shaken by this. Our adolescents are emerging into adults. The transitions that they endure produce growing pains. Some, we see and are privy to, and others are private. While we experience the tumult of the teen years with our sons and daughters, it can feel as if we are going through our own

  • Therefore, since we are surrounded by such great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition

  • You are sitting in your counselor's office. After weeks or months of tears and work you are well on your way to healing from your traumatic past. You have learned to identify triggers and work through panic attacks and anxiety. You are healing. It feels so good. Then comes the question, “Are you ready to forgive them?” All the work, all the healing comes down to this moment and you sit there, wondering how to answer. What forgiveness is

  • In looking at how to manage anger, it is helpful to better understand the three primary emotions. Psychologists normally agree that we all experience three basic emotions: love, anger, and fear. It is helpful to compare these to the three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. Every color, shade, and hue we see is one of these three primary colors or some combination of them. In the same way, every feeling we experience in life is one of

  • Attachment-Based Therapy (ABT) is a form of psychotherapy that aims to address the issues people face as a result of their attachment styles. It is drawn from the influential work of British Psychologist, Psychiatrist, and Psychoanalyst John Bowlby’s attachment theory. We're only as needy as our unmet needs. – John Bowlby Attachment theory aims at explaining and predicting relational behaviors that people exhibit as a result of first relational encounters with caregivers. Bowlby argues that the closer and more

  • There are very few people in the world, if any, who are happy being disliked by other people. We are deeply social beings, and being disliked, whether in reality, or in our own minds, feels like forced isolation from others; who wants that? We all engage in people-pleasing at times. Relationships with other people are a key part of what makes our lives feel like they’re flourishing. That makes sense, because at the heart of the universe is love.

  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression, also called seasonal depression or major depressive disorder with seasonal patterns. It affects 5% of the adult population, most noticeably between January and February, and is more prominent in women than in men. It commonly begins between the ages 18-30. There are rarer cases of seasonal depression occurring in summer, sometimes called “summertime sadness.” Those who live in the northern hemisphere, where there are fewer daylight hours during the winter

  • Anger is one of many emotions that can and will be felt and experienced throughout life. Anger is what is called a primary emotion. A primary emotion is an emotion that is typically universally recognized and is displayed in the person’s body language and facial expressions and can be a result of anger issues. The other primary emotions are: sadness, disgust, surprise, joy, and fear. Despite what many people say, or even teach to their children, anger is not